


BBC & Ghost Stories:

by Tendergingergirl



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 13:34:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17426858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tendergingergirl/pseuds/Tendergingergirl
Summary: December 8, 2016





	BBC & Ghost Stories:

##  [~BBC & Ghost Stories: A British Christmas Tradition~](https://tendergingergirl.tumblr.com/post/154194009526/bbc-ghost-stories-a-british-christmas)

**_[A Ghost Story for Christmas](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FA_Ghost_Story_for_Christmas&t=MjQ1NjZhM2NkMTg5NmQzMDkzMjFlZWNiNTVlMmIwNGM0OTM1OTRhNyxja1FUb2tTMA%3D%3D&b=t%3A99US-dd59KEFK-T_oX2E5Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Ftendergingergirl.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154194009526%2Fbbc-ghost-stories-a-british-christmas&m=1)_**  
A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived in 2005 on BBC Four. With one exception, the original instalments were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and the films were all shot on 16 mm colour film.The remit behind the series was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story, in line with the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas.  
Each installment is a separate adaptation of a short story, ranges between 30 and 50 minutes in duration, and features well-known British actors such as Clive Swift, Robert Hardy, Peter Vaughan, Edward Petherbridge and Denholm Elliott. The first five are adaptations of ghost stories by M. R. James, the sixth is based on a short story by Charles Dickens, and the two final instalments are original screenplays by Clive Exton and John Bowen respectively. The stories were titled A Ghost Story for Christmas in listings such as the Radio Times, although this never appeared on screen, where they were regarded as individual films.

**It is no coincidence that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol features more ghosts than carols, or that the 1963 Andy Williams song It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year promises “scary ghost stories.**

“ **Christmas was once the time for sharing tales of the spooks we now usually associate with Halloween.”** Our traditional festive celebrations owe much to the Victorians’ plundering of pagan symbolism - whether the still-fertile appearance of evergreens and holly, the bearded god Odin’s habit of climbing down chimneys, or spectres at the fireside.  As the Winter Solstice approached and daylight died away, the ancients thought that the barrier between the living and the dead became slender, so supernatural tales abounded. The practice continued on television in the 1970s with the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas series, which was revived in 2005. **So why have we not lost our appetite for these supernatural tales at Christmas?**

” _Perhaps it is something of a reaction to the otherwise jolly time of year_ ,“ says actor and writer Mark Gatiss…he is keen to continue the Christmas ghost story tradition. Celebrated for his work on Sherlock and Doctor Who, Gatiss makes his directorial debut with The Tractate Middoth - an adaptation of the M.R. James tale first published in 1911. He also presents a documentary on James himself - a Cambridge scholar who entertained his friends each Christmas Eve with horror stories and a glass of sherry…  **[M.R. James and the tradition of Christmas ghost stories](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Farts%2F0%2F25496655&t=MzNiODcxMmE5NGY4YTU3N2M0NjUzYTJmZmYxMzdlZDdhMzhlNTZiOSxja1FUb2tTMA%3D%3D&b=t%3A99US-dd59KEFK-T_oX2E5Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Ftendergingergirl.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154194009526%2Fbbc-ghost-stories-a-british-christmas&m=1)**

From [shadowsatthedoor.com](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shadowsatthedoor.com%2F2015%2F10%2Finterviewmarkgatiss%2F&t=ODBiMTYyYmUyMjVlMTUyNDE3ZjZiMWRmY2Q3ODVkYTEzYzExMTZhZixja1FUb2tTMA%3D%3D&b=t%3A99US-dd59KEFK-T_oX2E5Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Ftendergingergirl.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154194009526%2Fbbc-ghost-stories-a-british-christmas&m=1):  **SATD** : _You did a lot to introduce M.R. James to new audiences with your adaptation of The Tractate Middoth, and its accompanying documentary. Do you feel James is as recognised as other contemporaries?_

**MG** : _Oh yeah, he’s the master; he’s absolutely pre-eminent and is rightly regarded as so. I mean, the only problem I ever had when I did Crooked House, the BBC actually asked me to do an M.R. James adaptation and I said that I’d just like to do some new ones. Because in a way, James becomes the default, it’s like when they list the greatest films ever made, it’s so often Citizen Kane – people get a bit bored of it. He’s clearly the best that’s ever been, and people start to think; “Oh, is he the best?” Yes he is actually!_

**[M.R. James](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FM._R._James&t=ZWEyZDI1MjFlNjRiM2Q3ZDMyNTQ1MDRhMTg0OGI4ZTQyMGE2YjQyMixja1FUb2tTMA%3D%3D&b=t%3A99US-dd59KEFK-T_oX2E5Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Ftendergingergirl.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154194009526%2Fbbc-ghost-stories-a-british-christmas&m=1)** is best known for his ghost stories, **but his work as a medievalist scholar was prodigious and remains highly respected in scholarly circles.** Indeed, the success of his stories was founded on his antiquarian talents and knowledge. His discovery of a manuscript fragment led to excavations in the ruins of the abbey at Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk, in 1902, in which the graves of several twelfth-century abbots described by Jocelyn de Brakelond (a contemporary chronicler) were rediscovered, having been lost since the Dissolution. His 1917 edition of the Latin Lives of Saint Aethelberht, king and martyr (English Historical Review 32), remains authoritative…James’s ghost stories were published in a series of collections: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925). The first hardback collected edition appeared in 1931. Many of the tales were written as Christmas Eve entertainments and read aloud to friends…He also perfected the technique of narrating supernatural events through implication and suggestion, letting his reader fill in the blanks, and focusing on the mundane details of his settings and characters in order to throw the horrific and bizarre elements into greater relief. He summed up his approach in his foreword to the anthology _Ghosts and Marvels_ : ” _Two ingredients most valuable in the concocting of a ghost story are, to me, the atmosphere and the nicely managed crescendo…. Let us, then, be introduced to the actors in a placid way; let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings;_

  _and into this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first…_

.. _.and then more insistently, until it holds the stage.“_

He also noted: ” _Another requisite, in my opinion, is that the ghost should be malevolent or odious: amiable and helpful apparitions are all very well in fairy tales or in local legends, but I have no use for them in a fictitious ghost story_.“

Despite his suggestion (in the essay "Stories I Have Tried to Write”) that writers employ reticence in their work, many of James’s tales depict scenes and images of savage and often disturbing violence. For example, in “Lost Hearts..”

__**[Lost Hearts](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLost_Hearts&t=OTIzN2Q4ZWRhNjA3ODhhOGZkNTBiOWY5NDQ5ODJlMjk0ODgzYjZlZCxja1FUb2tTMA%3D%3D&b=t%3A99US-dd59KEFK-T_oX2E5Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Ftendergingergirl.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154194009526%2Fbbc-ghost-stories-a-british-christmas&m=1)**_   _he tale tells the story of Stephen Elliott, a young orphan boy, who is sent to stay with his much older cousin, Mr Abney, at a remote country mansion. His cousin is a reclusive alchemist obsessed with making himself immortal. Stephen is repeatedly troubled by visions of a young gypsy girl and a traveling Italian boy with their hearts missing…[Mr. Abney](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fpoptug.com%2Fa-summary-of-lost-hearts-a-ghost-story-by-m-r-james%2F&t=ZDQyMTc1NWI5NDNlZTNmNjFkNThhYTVhOGIyMDliZDQ1MGYzMGI2OCxja1FUb2tTMA%3D%3D&b=t%3A99US-dd59KEFK-T_oX2E5Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Ftendergingergirl.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154194009526%2Fbbc-ghost-stories-a-british-christmas&m=1) was a professor of Greek at Cambridge University. He was deeply versed in ancient pagan religions and philosophies, such as the worship of Mithras and Neo-Platonism…. **He believed that he could gain supernatural powers by taking the hearts out of three living children, burning the hearts, mingling their ashes with wine, and drinking it.**

_**The avowed master of the genre, M.R. James’s tales continue to be adapted and re-adapted for television.** _


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